urban

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Cradle is a sculpture installed on the exterior wall of a parking lot in Santa Monica, California by Ball-Nogues Studio, originally designed by Frank Gehry.

An aggregation of mirror polished stainless steel spheres, the sculpture functions structurally like an enormous Newton’s Cradle – the ubiquitous toy found on the desktops of corporate executives in Hollywood films. Each ball is suspended by a cable from a point on the wall and locked in position by a combination of gravity and neighboring balls. The whole array reflects distorted images of passersby.

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Since we’re on the subject of grass today, check out Green Corner, a collaboration between Helsinki-based artists Otto Karvonen and Jon Irigoyen. Described as an “urban intervention” the idea was fairly straightforward: install a grass turf lawn in a parking space creating a temporary park that calls into question the ideas of ownership and use in public spaces.

Green corner is a spatial artwork consisting of lawn that is installed on a parking space. The lawn is equipped with some comfortable garden furniture, to provide a relaxing break in the middle of the hectic urban space. The work raises questions about public space in general; to whom it belongs and what can be done with it. […] The project functions also as an invitation to a workshop taking place in June. The workshop explores the public spaces in Kallio [a neighborhood in Helsinki] and the future prospects of the area.

It would be fun to see this project expanded to entire street or intersection. I’ll bring the croquet set. (via pixelache)

Update: So I’ve been living in a public art cave. Apparently this project is very similar to, and perhaps even part of, an ongoing worldwide movement called Park(ing) Day in which hundreds of parking spots across the globe are converted into small recreational parks. A million kabillion good shots can be found here. (thnx, @thegcanyon)

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In my first college photography class we were frequently given 1-2 hours of shooting time to leave the photo building and venture out into downtown Chicago to knock out a roll or two of film. I found it enjoyable to be taking pictures during class but always felt slightly defeated knowing that thousands of students before and after me would be venturing out into a small radius around school shooting pictures of the exact same buildings, streets, and parks. What type of skill and eye would it take, to pass by the same thing seen by hundreds of passersby each day and recognize instantly the beauty and uniqueness of an image? It seemed almost impossible. It’s clear in Yojiro Imasaka‘s vertical shots of New York alleys that he posses just such talent. Something incredibly beautiful out of the completely mundane. (via pytr 75)